Come and Sing

Description

‘Come and Sing’ was written to celebrate the establishment of a girls’ choir at St Columb’s Cathedral, Derry. The text is by Irish hymn writer Cecil Frances Alexander, famous for her Christmas carol ‘Once in Royal David’s City’. Alexander had a long connection with this cathedral and she looks down on the young singers from her stained-glass portrait in the nave. She wrote the poem of ‘Come and Sing’ for the music educationalist John Hullah (1812–84). This explains the pedagogical nature of the poem, which uses musical terminology used as metaphors throughout the poem, for example, measure, chord, cadence, and pulse.  I wanted to include the most famous melody of ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ to highlight the historical association of the cathedral with Alexander’s most famous hymn. The well-known melody by Henry Gauntlett (1805–76) is used as a descant in the final verse.